Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device information display apparatus and a method that display device information of a field device.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2012-009138, filed Jan. 19, 2012, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Description of the Related Art
All patents, patent applications, patent publications, scientific articles, and the like, which will hereinafter be cited or identified in the present application, will hereby be incorporated by reference in their entirety in order to describe more fully the state of the art to which the present invention pertains.
Conventionally, in order to implement a high level of automated operation in plants, factories, and the like, distributed control systems (DCSs), in which on-site equipment (measurement instruments and actuators) known as field devices are connected to device management apparatuses that manage and control the field devices, via a communication bus, have been implemented. Field devices supplied by various manufacturers are often installed in such plants, and management of a mixture of field devices with different specifications becomes difficult. Given this, EDDL (Electronic Device Description Language), which is a conventional language for describing the characteristics and attributes of field devices, is used to accommodate differences between the specifications of field devices provided by various manufactures, thereby implementing uniform management.
In this case, field devices that are installed in a plant or the like, from the standpoint of preventing abnormal operation and maintaining measurement accuracy and the like, are subjected to periodic or non-periodic maintenance by workers. The maintenance of field devices is commonly done using portable terminal device, such as a computer or PDA (personal digital assistant) in which a dedicated tool (field device setting tool) for the purpose of setting and adjusting field devices is installed. With regard to this field device setting tool as well, in order to recognize the characteristics and attributes of the field devices being maintained, the above-noted EDDL is used.
Specifically, when performing maintenance on a field device, a worker first connects the field device being maintained and a portable terminal device into which a field device setting tool is installed using a cable (for example, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) cable). Next, the worker operates the portable terminal device so as to acquire device information (parameters) from the field device and display the acquired device information. Then, referring to the device information displayed on the portable terminal device, if necessary the worker operates the portable terminal device so as to change the device information and then instructs the field device for setting the device information. In this manner, various settings and adjustments are performed on field devices.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2010-79384 discloses a device information display apparatus that, while conforming to the e-EDD (Enhanced Electronic Device Description) standard, enables the display of device information of field devices in a multi-window environment. Also, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2006-252145 discloses a device information display apparatus that displays device information in accordance with a template that governs the method of display of the device information. Additionally, United States Patent Application, Publication No. 2007/0077665 discloses art that enables modification to a user interface in a tool that uses a DTM (device type manager).
The art disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2010-79384 uses a DD (device descriptor) file prepared by the vendor of a field device for displaying the device information. Because the DD file defines not only all of the characteristics and attributes of the field device provided by the vendor but also the display menu, there is a huge amount of device information displayed. This being the case, it takes time for a user to reach the device information that is to be accessed, thereby resulting in the problem of poor operation. Also, because of the large amount of displayed device information, there is a risk of operational errors, such as accessing device information that has the same name but different characteristics or attributes.
Also, although the art disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2006-252145 enables modification of the method of displaying the device information, it is necessary to code the template establishing the display method in text format, thereby resulting in the problem of poor usability. Although United States Patent Application, Publication No. 2007/0077665 discloses the enabling of a graphical modification to the user interface, this does not conform to the EDD standard and, because it defines the display menu structure using a proprietary format, it leads to the problem of a lack of general usability and expandability.
The device information that a worker is required to access to perform maintenance on a field device is substantially fixed for each type of device that is to be maintained and, with the exception of a case in which an abnormality occurs, there is almost no accessing of device information other than this fixed device information. For this reason, if the device information that has been accessed by a worker when performing maintenance tasks in the past is automatically displayed, the effort required by the worker to select the device information to be accessed is eliminated, and a dramatic improvement in the work efficiency can be expected.